“What can I tell you about this wonderful house?” asks its owner, who has lived in the bright, welcoming Edwardian five-bed for nearly 18 years.
The charm of 35 Mountain View Road in Ranelagh is apparent from the street; this house and its neighbour display distinctive facades with double box-bay windows. Built in 1910, it has a railed and gravelled front garden and a generous porch under a round redbrick arch.
Inside, it’s a relaxed and well-loved home, which the owners have modernised gently while honouring its integrity, following the example of their predecessors, advertising professionals Frank Sheerin and Catherine Donnelly. It’s a functional family home that has accommodated many uses over the years, says the current owner, adding that Sheerin’s Harp lager ad, featuring “Sally O’Brien and the way she might look at you” was filmed here in 1980.
The current owner recalls hosting cookery demonstrations in the kitchen when their children were small, and now runs her psychotherapy practice from one of the upstairs rooms. As the family settled in, they took time to consider their needs; after four years, in 2008, they extended the kitchen and in 2010 they converted the attic. The kitchen extension, designed by architect Nuada MacEoin, is a long, bright rectangle with space for cooking, dining and flopping on to a squashy sofa. There are many cupboards, a concealed utility, a huge range cooker, and a bar counter under a rooflight; windows at the end and on the corner window look out to the garden.
Bifolding glass doors open to a wide patio shaded by a retractable awning; a passage runs out to the side gate and the original back door opens into a handy coat store. There is a guest toilet with a shower under the stairs.
MacEoin designed interesting angles into the profile of the cedar-clad extension: “We didn’t want a big football pitch of a kitchen,” says the owner, taking pride in the natural materials.
The garden is quiet and private, facing east and bordering the gardens of Merton Drive. Sean Keighran of Creative Garden Design created a pleasing mix of textures, with a raised patio built to trap evening sunshine and a flower bed bounded by a wall just right for sitting on. His log store makes a feature out of a utility, beside a cherry tree still in delicate flower.
Inside, at hall level, those logs are burned in the drawing-room stove; this front reception room gets beautiful light through the bay window and the almost-matching marble fireplace in the rear reception room has a gas fire. The rooms can be closed off by sliding doors but when open they create a calm space, painted the same soft blue and carpeted in grey, with built-in bookshelves and understated ceiling roses.
Upstairs on the return are two bedrooms, one with a Velux as well as a window, and the family bathroom has a bath and separate shower. There are two large double bedrooms on the top landing, with built-in storage and very appealing fireplaces; the fifth bedroom, over the hall, is used as an office.
At the top of the 215sq m (2,314sq ft) house, up a new staircase that matches the original, is a large attic room with storage under the eaves and two Velux windows looking out to Dublin Bay. More rooflights above the stairs flood the hall with natural light. New owners might wish to add another bathroom upstairs, perhaps by converting one of the smaller bedrooms, and to address the BER of E1.
Mountain View Road is located at the Beechwood end of the village, close to the Luas stop and to the shops at Dunville Avenue: “Once you live in Ranelagh, it’s hard to live anywhere else,” says the owner. Number 35 is for sale through Lisney, with an asking price of €1.595 million.
